Lordswood announce new Assistant Manager
Lordswood have announced the appointment of Imran Englefield as 1st team Assistant Manager.
Imran steps up into the first team setup having managed the club’s reserve side for the past 3 years.
Imran joined Lordswood 11 years ago for the 2010/11 season and went on to make 145 appearances for the 1st team over 5 seasons, scoring 9 goals. He was part of arguably one of the clubs most successful seasons in 2012/13, when the side reached a then highest ever league position of 5th, reached a club record 4th round of the FA Vase (losing to eventual Champions, Spennymoor Town) and were beaten finalists in the Kent Senior Trophy.
Imran left the club at the end of the 2014/15 season but found he missed football at the Grove and returned two years later to play for the Reserves section under Rob Everett in their first season of the Kent County League in 2017/18. Everett resigned at the end of that season and it was then that Imran took his first steps into management, taking over the reins as joint manager with Chris Gardner.
Their first season in Division One Central & East provided them with an excellent learning experience and their 2nd season at the helm in 2019/20 was excellent until it was unceremoniously halted by the Covid pandemic. The side featured in the top 3 for the majority of the season and reached the final of the Kent Intermediate Cup, which they won, after a years delay, last month.
Lordswood first team manager, Neil Hunter, was delighted to add Imran to his team, telling us;
“Imi is Lordswood through and through. He loves the club and I’m over the moon to be able to bring him in as my number 2. He has impressed me massively in how he deals with players and how he has managed the Reserves, I respect him immensely.”
Having Imran joining the First Team setup leaves a gap in the reserves management and that is one that the Lords will be looking to resolve over the next month. Undoubtedly though, the links between the youth, reserves and 1st team sections will continue to build ever stronger.
